Love is in the air today ... and, don’t drive when the president speaks!

‘IT’S kind of amazing, given our politicians’ obsession with self-promotion, that we haven’t yet seen a line of congressional colognes,” writes Frank Bruni in The New York Times.

I know, I know — I’m supposed to have a big February valentine quote right here. But I couldn’t resist that one because I just read a story about Drew Barrymore in Harper’s Bazaar. She put her family’s great theater name on a successful scent. These days it seems to be fact that unless you have a cologne, a makeup or fashion line, a rock star guitar personality or a cooking scheme — you are all washed up.

But I make up for these shortcomings. After all, every single year of my long career, I have received, on Feb. 14, a beautiful Valentine from the Mazzola family; this year’s is from Sylvia, Alison, Tad, James and Christina. Lovely. They were photographed in Denali, Alaska.

I enjoyed the State of the Union address and its attendant TV hoopla. This is about the only time we actually see most of our lawmakers, justices, cabinet members, speakers and movers and shakers in one place, shaking hands, kissing, hugging, applauding, or not applauding, and you can read their lips and gestures informally. (Of course, the secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, was not in attendance because one member of the president’s cabinet must always stay away in case of an emergency. If the building exploded, Chu would become the president of the United States!)

Anyway, it was amusing that the New York Post’s Michael Starr recommended six TV alternatives to watching President Obama address the nation. He wrote that instead, one might see “House,” “When in Rome,” “Top Gear,” “Dance Moms,” “Citizen Kane” and “Ramsay Behind Bars.”

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I once advised AARP magazine to start sending itself out in a brown paper wrapper so the postman and neighbors wouldn’t know that one had reached the age of 50.

But I see my young and talented pal Marlo Thomas doesn’t care about such things. She has written a delightful article for the current AARP, titled “Head Over Heels: Finding Love Later in Life Can Be Chaotic, Inconvenient ... and Perfect.”

It’s all about how she met Phil Donahue, a fellow love sufferer, who said he didn’t ever want to marry and she thought, ‘How perfect ... a man who thinks like me.’ Well, you know what happened next? Three years later they were wed and are still glad about it.